She watched as he pulled his pants on, leaving them open as he sat beside her. She kept watching his face as he reached for his shoes. "What's on your mind?"
"I buried you, I BURIED YOU and here you sit."
"You were followed after the hospital. They dug me up and took me back, the doctor performed some 'experiments' on me and brought me back to life."
"You're not a walker though."
"He repaired the damage to my brain, that's what kept me from turning." She licked her lips. "You're immune."
"Immune to what?"
"The undead virus. You're immune to it because you were in a coma when it first happened. He thinks you might even be immortal."
"How do you get that?"
"The undead virus reanimates dead flesh so anytime you get hurt, the virus reanimates the dead skin to heal it. Since you're alive, the virus heals your wounds instead of turning it into decaying flesh. The coma saved your life."
"What about you?"
"I don't know, I may never know." She slid an inch closer. "Are you regretting your decision to leave them and come with me?"
"Hell no!" He took hold of her cheek in one hand and kissed her lips hard. "I love you, nothing is going to change that. I've been in love with you the entire time."
"You mean Rebecca right."
"No I mean BOTH of you … I've been in love with you from the start too." He turned away and went to rise, her hand on his arm caused him to stop. He turned back to her and pulled her to him. "When you died, part of me went with you. I loved you, had been in love with you from the beginning and I wanted to tell you so bad. Once we'd gotten you back at the hospital, I was going to take you out of there and show you how I really felt. When I saw how you embraced Noah, it didn't change the way I felt about you so I was going to abide my time and talk to you later … later never came so I put those feelings away because they hurt way too much. Then they came running back full force when I met you as Rebecca. It scared me how much I felt towards you, and I kept telling myself that these feelings couldn't be real. The first time you kissed me, I just forgot it all and everything I felt that was bottled up came out. I didn't want to scare you away but I couldn't help myself, I let go like you wanted me to and I fell so hard for you. The first time we made love I never wanted to leave your side, that's why I acted the way I did that's why I brought Judith to you. Carol and Carl both told me to be happy, not to care what everyone else thought so I did. When Michonne started treating you like she did, it flew all over me and I just went off on her. It hurt me to see her treat you like that, something deep inside just kept telling me that it was wrong, that you were more than what I could see … and now I know."
Sighing, she leaned her head on his arm. "Why are you getting dressed, why can't we just stay here for now and figure things out later."
"I'm not leaving, WE'RE not leaving, I just want to explore this place a bit more."
"Okay, I'll get dressed and help."
"Only if you insist because seeing you like this …" He licked his lips. "I am thinking such bad thoughts about what I want to do to you … but I want to make sure we're all right here. We didn't check this place out much last night, I just want to make sure we're all right here for a bit."
"Okay, go on."
He growled playfully and pushed her back down. He stared down into her eyes and grinned. "This is all us, no one in our way and I know we can make it work. Deal?"
"Deal."
Rising, he pulled his shoes on and rose; he stepped out of the room and down the hall. Poking his head in the first door, he stepped into the bathroom and turned on the faucet. Water ran out brown, discolored from the pipes then turned clear. Looking into the mirror, he cupped water in his hands and splashed his face. Reaching up, he opened the cabinet and glanced inside … nothing was left, he wasn't surprised just he that he'd hoped there'd be something. Closing it, he turned the water off and pulled the shower curtain back … the tub was less than desirable but it could be cleaned (maybe). Pulling the curtain back, he opened the cabinet and found nothing. Sighing, he turned the water off and looked to see her in the door. "At least the water works, tub's less than clean."
"We can work on it." She handed his t-shirt to him.
Grinning, he took it from her and stole a kiss. Pulling it on, they walked down the hall together and began inspecting the house. It had been sitting open for longer than not, maybe even before the out-break. Heading into the kitchen, he owned and closed all the cabinets but found nothing. "This is a good place to hold up but I don't think we need to stay here for long."
"Yea I know, but I sort of like it."
"I know you do, we could try and make it work if you want."
"Not really … in the light of day it's less than deserving really."
"Yea I know." He leaned against the cabinet. "You mentioned something about a store several times before we left Alexandria, something you wanted to explore more. Want to try and find it?"
"Yea I think we should."
"What's so special about it?"
"It was one of the first things I saw after they dropped me off."
"So they dropped you off in the middle of nowhere?"
"They dropped me off at this rundown gas station, telling me to start walking east and I would run into people. They said I might get lucky and find Alexandria then they left."
"Idiots."
"Yea right."
"Okay, let's get our stuff and hit the road."
"Deal."
He walked to her and took her into his arms, kissing her hard. "Damn it's good to have you back."
"It's good to be back."
